Non-League and Academy football writer

In the latest of a series of articles on football teams from across London, my latest historical piece is on non-League/grassroots football involving teams from the area of Battersea, in South West London. There was a team in the early 1900s called Battersea FC, although I’m not quite sure whether they later became Battersea United, who represented the area of Battersea for a good number of decades. 

Battersea United were members of the old Parthenon League, until that league folded in 1966. In fact Battersea United’s first ever Parthenon League fixture was away to Canvey Island, some years earlier. They would lose that game 7-3. Having joined the Greater London League (they won Division One during their first season in the league), they left the Greater London League at the end of the resulting 1967/68 season. And I have been unable to find out, despite having done extensive research, including looking at a number of old local newspapers, whether Battersea United folded, or whether they continued/merged with another club.

FC Battersea Ironsides are another very historical football/sports club who are based in the London borough of Wandsworth. Their first team have been long standing members of the Surrey Premier County Football League. However, for a short while FC Battersea Ironsides played their football in the Premier Division of the Middlesex County Football League, which they won in the 2005/06 season, as champions. During that season they accumulated 69 points from 30 league matches played.

Currently in third place in this season’s Surrey Premier County Football League standings after 14 league matches played, FC Battersea Ironsides are two points off league leaders and defending champions of that step 7 league, Wimbledon Casuals. I hope to attend an FC Battersea Ironsides match at some point during the remainder of this season. A recent football club who play their football in Battersea, at Battersea Park, is Sunnah FC. Founded in 2023, they play their football in the Southern Amateur Football League.